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tv   Dateline NBC  NBC  March 18, 2016 10:00pm-11:00pm EDT

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there in an empty parking lot. >> six perfectly stacked cardboard boxes. >> narrator: what was in there? >> i watched enough date line to know that was probablyot a good sign. >> reporter: in lester holt and this ip "dateline." here's keith morrison with " "smoke and mirrors." >> narrator: it wasn't like this, younderstand. it wasn't gray, wasn't cold. no flecks of snow to catch the bitter breeze. it was hot and after midnight, september, 2007. so it was, and it was clear and dark and still.. and vacant. here where the deep woods fought back against the decaying suburban sprawl. and then nothing was clear at all.
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cry. >> you're experiencing everything, but it's not true. you're just waiting to wake up. >> it just feels like you're literally in a nightmare. >> narrator: yes, still does. the name, you'll want to remember, is naila this is nailah's mother, maria. >> i wanted her to be successful successful, and she was. she lived her name. >> narrator: quite true, as frankly had the rest of them in this big f mily. this is lehia, the first born. >> we might need a graph or a chart because it's kind of involved. >> narrator: full siblings, half siings, quarter siblings once removed that sort of thing. the family was very blended. >> to me, it implies that it's something less and i have never
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that word. we're just s slings. >> narrator: one big, close happy family, so said john, the youngest. >> it's simple for us because we grew up together from the time we were young, so for us, it's like we're one big family. >> narrator: not one but two ashleys. >> she's ashleys with an e, and she's ashley with a y. >> i think this is kind of unusual, kind of rare, that everybody gets along. >> yeah, everybody gets along, it's a good thing. >> although when we were kids, it was a lot more crazy to other people. >> hi. >> narrator: and in the middle of this big family, was nailah. little mute, they used to call her, because once she decided something, all arguments against were mute. >> she was sure of herself from really the earliest time. >> narrator: yes, nailah franklin w w goingomewhere.
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always looked up to her. >> she always accepted you for who you are. it's like she glowed when she came into a room. >> narrator: she came to chicico and built a career in pharmaceutical sales. she owned a condo in the heart of the city. >> i think everything she wanted to be she was. the theme fabulous was the piration and she always met that mark. >> narrator: she always stayed in touch, never failed. call her, she would call back right away, text her, she would reply instantly, always. >> she managed to water all of her relationships, she would spend time with everyone, friends, family. >> that's a pretty special skill. >> to manage that and your
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course there were. though she was shall we say, discertaindis discerning. >> professional nice men. >> she was dating with plastic surgeon guy, and this guy and that guy. >> she took up briefly with a dashing investor with a white bentley. and in july of 2007, she met andre wright. >> she had a big, beautiful smile, a big beautiful woman, she had a veve warm personality and we kind of walked around the space looking at different pieces, talking about my interests, what i was looking for in a piece of art. >> suddenly this was a different search. >> the art work became of little interest to me at that point. >> narrator: just like that, it was all over for both of them.
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hallmark card on you, but this was clearly like a trance indental moment. >> the family loved andre, who wouldn't wouldn't. >> he came to my son's birthday party and he brought a gift. because he's a nicequality person. >> you started planning on moving in together, right, on being together? >> we did. >> and it was happening pretty fast? >> it felt good though, it just felt natural. >> it was long distance, he in milwaukee, she in chicago. they stayed connected by phone and e-mail and text all day long. >> i would call her every morning. >> narrator: and no one seemed to notice any dark force, any unseen thing festering in the heat of that hot late summer, didn't feel the warning, didn't know who said what to whom. it was september 18, a tuesday..
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thought i had called her on my way to work. but i was interrupted and she called me and said, hey, what happened to my call. i said oh, i thought i had. so we spoke for a bit, exchanged e-mails later. and then just kind of went about the day. >> narrator: evening came, he in the flush of love, called again. no answer. >> left her a message saying i was heading home and got a text message back from her phone saying she was at a dinner and would reach out later. >> wait a minute. you had been callili her every day, talking all the time. >> yeah. >> and she said, i'm at dinner, i'll call you later? >> narrator: but she didn't. then, 9:00 p.m., /ne of the ashleys call nailah, nailah who always picked up the phone for a sister. >> i texted her and i got something along the lines of i'm
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few. >> was that like her? >> it's not like her to not answer her phone. i have seen her step out of the shower to answer her phone. >> i sent her an e-mail, in all caps, are you alive? >> one of those things half in jest, half knowing. >> reporter: not only was nailah increasingly hard to get after work. >> one more ominous sign, three calls to 911 from her cell phone. >> no voice, no struggles could be heard, light music in the background. >> that's got to be kind of
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. >> narrator: september 19, 2007 dawned in chicago like any other day, hot, the usual, except for one thing, nailah frank in, ambitious, dependable, always on her phone, are silence, even with her new love, andre. >> i called her that morning, e-mailed her, called her again early afternoon. >> >>. >> narrator: that's when he sent her that all caps e-mail, are you alive? >> you probably didn't mean it the way it was? >> it's like to say to someone, are you there? >> later in condo, no answer. she got a key, went in. >> you see her eggs and coffee that she had just left there, just out. >> somhing's wrong. >> i'm like, you know what? this isn't right. >> narrator: then lehia got a professional, she snowknows how, she's a public relations executive. >> your p.i. experience really kicked in?
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>> lehia's experience told her not to hope too much for media's help for one unfortunate reason. >> quite frankly, i don't know of one woman of color that gets the same attention by the media, in general. >> in fact there's some truth to it. that the good looking young blond, the whole world wants to know about her, stay talking about her for years, a black woman's not quite the same deal. >> there is really got that. it troubles the mind when people of color go missing, or if it didn't fit the narrative of gun violce or gang violence or something like that, then somehow, it's not real. >> narrator: though lehia knew, but lehia was not to be denied. >> they damned well going to cover it.
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>> narrator: maybe this is because of lehia's media salve ity savvy. >> we were in the streets and putting up any place we could, downtown, suburbs. >> narrator: they phoned and texted and e-mailed their friends, but no one reported seeingsee ing nailah, no one. nailah's sisters kept replaying their last conversation. >> she called me and she said, i've got something to tell you. and before she could tell me, she got a call on the other line. she clicked over and said she would call me back. >> she didn't call you? >> she didn't call me back. >> narrator: awful what a person's mind can churn up in the dark, as day one became day two, and then day three. >> i just kept calling her, i was thinking, she's going to
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>> there's no handbook about this, , u think you're going to wake up and it's a dream, but, no, it's reel. >> detective greg jacobson, who right away scanned nailah's phone records and found something alarming. just after 10:00 p.m., the night nailah vanished, her cell phone made three calls to 911. >> chicago emergency, may i help you? >> no voice, no struggles could be heard, no background noise, with the exception of some light music in the background. >> that's kind of eerie to hear that. >> if a person is unable to physically complete the conversation and just able to dial the nang 911. >> narrator: so thth investigators set about talklkg to just about everybody nailah knew. >> there was doctors she had
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steps and everyonenehe had encountered. >> everyone we knew had a relationship with her. >> narrator: maybe lehia's campaign worked because -- >> we had some anonymous tips of people saying they had seen her at this location. >> narrator: but not a single one of them led to nailah, now detectives knew they were dealing with a serious crime. and yet -- >> she's missing, technically, thererhasn't been a crime committed. >> that makes it somewhat awkward when you're looking into it. >> we looked at the boyfriend she went to see from wisconsin the week before she went missing. >> andre was helping in the search and soon was the subject of it. the perfect boyfriend, now to police, a perfectly obvious person of interest. >> reporter: coming up, a discovery in an emptparking
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>> it was in a pretty secluded area a right adjacent to a lagoon. i watch enough "dateline" to know that's not a good sign. >> reporter: but what if anything did it ve to do with nailah. when "dateline" continues. use your miles to cover the cost. now you're getting somewhere. what's in your wallet? ever since darryl's wife started using gain flings, their laundry smells more amazing than ever. (sniff) honey, isn't that the dog's towel? (dog noise) hey, mi towel, su towel. more scent plus oxi boost and febreze.
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it was a big search? >> yes. >> how overwhelming was that? >> you know, the world seems so big when you're looking for someone. >> narrator: imagine, all of chicago, a a nailah would be anywhere, tied up in a basement, in the trunk of a car, or worse. then middle of the night, 20 miles south of town in a place called calumet city, a cop was
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golf course parking lot. his name is calvin lucius. >> i was in this area right here, i noticed right in front of me, six perfectly stakt lyly stacked cardboard boxes right in the parking lot. something stood out, so i'm like something's not right here. >> narrator: inside the boxes, pills, hundreds of them. >> i was thinking this might be something big, some type of narcotics and drug related case. >> except it looked like examples, something a pharmaceutical rep would be handing out to doctors. >> what were they? >> different types of medicines, i can't even pronounce the names. >> narrator: the label, the addresesto a storage locker and a name. nailah.
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>> the fib and chicago police, everybody was out here looking. >> narrator: including detective greg jacobson. >> it was right next to a nature preserve, that was right adjacent to a lagoon. i watch enough "dateline" to know that's not a good sign. >> they drudged the lagoon. >> narrator: back and forth they nt, dragging the pond and found one thing. >> jewelry hanging from a tree. >> nailah wasn't here. but remember sister lehia's p.r. campaign, not far away from there, next town over -- >> a person saw a newscast, and they're like, that car's been on my block for a couple days. and thank god they found that
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to call it in. >> narrator: that call came in here, a black chevy impala. >> we went out there to see it. >> narrator: it was hers. >> you opened that trunk, the last thing you want totohink is there's something in that trunk. and fortunately there wasn't. >> did you find any prints, any dna, anything useful at all? >> i think ourthe way our technicians described it, it was wiped clean. >> narrator: determined that she might find her sister, the younger ashley drove out there. >> the car was parked in front of an abandoned house. i knocked on the door, i banged name. i had to be tan from that area.
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what do you know? >> they had even a male loitering around the vehicle. >> did they give you a good description? >> it was an african-american. >> that description may have fit a lot of people in nailah's life. for example her new boyfriend, andre wright. police had questioned him about t their relationship and where he was when she disappeared. >> they asked when the last time i saw her was, the last time we spoke. >> narrator: or could that man milling around the car have been someone elses her ex-boyfriend, his name was reginald pops. but vefore the cops could find him, he stepped up and called them. >> he said he wanted to know why the chicago police wanted to talaing to him. >> narrator: he agreed to stop by headquarters to talk.
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but purely by chance in the street on the ritzy gold coast, she was sophisticated, so was he. they dated on occasion, and realized it wasn't for life. >> he lives in a very large artment complex, a high-rise. >> nice place? >> beautiful. >> in an upscale area. >> it's where you w wt to live. >> narrator: reginald told them everything they wanted to know. shopping with friends at target, bar hopping with not one, but two lady friends, after that an intimate plan with a third girlfriend. >> they made plans to meet at reginald's apartment around midnight on the 18th. >> this guy gets around. >> if you got a bentley, your options are open.
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check reginald potts alibi, down in calumet, when a partner notices something. >> he saw a couple of ear buds hanging from the trees. >> bright little babbles hanging there in the dark. what else was there at the edge of the midnight woods. >> reporter: detectives take a closer look at a man from nailah's past. >> she felt that thereas something off about him. starting a a$12.99 may all your tomorrow's be as delicious as today
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good morning, this is your captain speaking. it's a beautiful day with sunny skies and a lightailwind out of the northeast. blue skies smiling at me nothing but blue skies do i see bluebirds singing a song nothing but bluebirds all day long i've never seen the sun shining so bright. never seen things going so right i'm noticing the day just hurry by when you're in loveve my how they fly
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>> narrator: and that very night, in the 3:00 a.m. hush of calumet city, calvin lucius mama his way from the ear buds his partner found hanging in a tree, behind a derelict video store. >> i got right around in this area, and just looked over and the body was there. >> what was that moment like? >> shock, you don't [now if it's her or not, but you have a idea, because it's a female body. >> narrator: ty had to resort to dental records to confirm, it was nailah. >> i think this type of death, it doesn't just kill that person, it kills a lot in the family. it's the absence of a piece of you because that person is not here. >> i can't describe it, it's like you know it's happening, but it just feel real. it just feels like you're in, lierally like in a nightmare.
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confirmed the death was by asphyxiation, so now it was homicide, but who was the killer? not andre. confirmed he was in milwaukee when nailah vanished. >> everything with him checked out. >> narrator: as for being questioned -- >> are you upset by that at all? >> they should have done that, that's part of their job. >> narrator: what about reginald potts who hahabeen so helpful. well, this is curious, when investigators went to visit his high-rise apartment, they couldn't help but notice -- >> one of the doors was extremely damaged, like it had been forced open. >> narrator: hmm, that's weird. but maybe not so weird. >> reginald potts was visited by the sheriff's office in order to
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>> of course this was 2006, a lot of people were falling behind in their mortgages. but reginald's was deeper than that. >> he was constantly in default. he had not a pot or pan in the kitchen, but what he believed were important items to surround himself with, cars, clothing, high end restaurants. there for show. >> narrator: the bentley it turned out belonged to somebody else. and his hookups and a wife who was raising his children and another one who was raising another. it didn't takeailah long to figure it out. >> she knew something was off about him, so she decided to look a little deeper. >> narrator: so she ended it,
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whomever she could about reginald, even one of his other girlfriends. >> watch out for this guy, he's bad news, and he's cheating on you? >> yeah, they were in communication about reginald. >> nailah told andre that when reginald found out, he wasn't happy. >> he got wind of that and reached out toailah in a threatening manner. >> narrator: sent her nasty e-mails and voicemails. >> did you worry about that a lot? >> she didn't exhibit any worrrrs to me about it. >> narrator: but she must have been worried. detectives found a report that nailah had called a nonemergency police phone number, asked about filing an order of protection against a threatening ex-boyfriend. she mentiod mr. potts. so, yes, reginald pots was a murder suspect. but he wasn't exactly hiding from the police. remember, he had given them a very detailed alibi to check out. >> he was pretty specific on
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>> narrator: and as the weeks went by, he seemed quite eager to help. >> he continuously called me on my cell phone. >> reaeay? called you to tell you what? >> trying to direct the investigation, why haven'te talked to you eke echolk. >> they were at a target store shopping. >> narrator: and sure enough, mr. echols confirmrm his account, there they are on security cameras at the target store, which would seem to exclude potts as a suspect if he was opping, not killing and asphyxiating nailah. >> if you're g#ing to commit a crime, do not do it at target, they're going to have everything from the sign to every transaction on the keypad very
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>> although he managed to avoid every camera on the store, or his frchbd lied to him. he admitted that not only reginald wasn't at the target, but -- >> he got a phone call from reginald pts and traveled to hammond in order to pick him up because he needed a ride. >> hammond, indiana, where nailah's car was found. on september 16, 2007, reginald pots was arrested for the murder of nailah franklin. but reginald, quite vehemently denied kill herring. >> we would push you and then we would have -- >> fabrication? yes, said reginald, he was being framed. >> reporter: coming up, a suspect bears all. >> why are you taking yours off?
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>> narrator: here we are in a litt room in a chicago police ststion, reginald potts is under arrest for the murder of n nlah
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are certain they have their man. but mr. potts? >> i had mantadamantly deny that i was anywhere near her the day she disappeared. >> narrator: he was nowhere near her when she vanished. >> i was nowhere near hehe >> narrator: of course they told them they had evidence. >> i have video of your bentley in the parking garage of your building. >> i can tell you for sure that's a lie. >> narrator: a police frame-up to which the detectives said -- >> you understand thahavideo cameras are everywhere? >> narrator: yes, including g nailah's apartment building, and there is reginald, plain as day with nailah, arriving and leaving with her on that very day she disappeared. >> so you knew he wathere? >> yes.
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doubled down on hiss denials. >> i am certain that i am nonoere near inside of nailah franklin's apartment. >> narrator: accused the police of fabricating evidence. >> i guarantee you you don't have video of me getting off the elevator at nailah franklin's house, i iyou do, you're very good at photo shop. >> narratoto he never expressed any desire for an attorney, but when they asked him to stand in a lineup so that witnesses could-- >> the state's attorney is registering the case, i would not feel comfortable at all, at all. >> so they waited for reginald's
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and then, it got odd. >> your attorney's right there. off? >> your attorney's right here, we want to take him for a lineup right now. you can step in the other room. >> regald removed all of his clothing and refused to stand in the lineup. >> that's an interesting tactic. >> yes. >> have you ever seen that before? >> no. >> narrator: so no lineup, but they charged him anyway with capital murder. nailah by then had been dead three months. >> i was definitely relieved, i was kind of surprised that it took so long.. but i was relieved. >> narrator: relieved too that reginald potts as was his right, demanded a speedy trial, but then -- >> reginald potts used every
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dedey the process. >> narrator: nbc chicago's charlie husky watched in amazen't as reginald turns speedy justice into something else all together. >> he hired lawyers, he fired lawyers, he tried to act as his own attorney. at each step of the trial, the trial had to be reset. >> in the fourth half of the year, indiana haapolished capital punishment, so that was off the table. still reginald's actions forced delays. just as nailah's family had reached out to the media, reginald potts tried to launch a p.r. campaign from behind bars. >> his family reached out trying to convince me that there may besome way that he was not associated with this crime, that it might be associated with someone else.
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mamapulation was slow torture. >> i very much believe that everyone should have a aair and just trial and that too often people who are poor or people of cor do not -- or most often, they don't get proper representation, and theyon't get a fair shake in our court system. but this was not that. >> narrator: and then finally, on october 28, 2015, on a crisp, fall day in chicago, the trial reginald potts began, it had taken eight years to get here. >> when it was finally happening, we were confused about how things would go down. finally a trial, what type of experience is this going to be? >> narrator: they had no idea,
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assistant state attorneys maria mccarthy and fabio value leanentini were the district attorneys in the crime. >> narrator: and not many cases with a defendant quite like reginald potts. >> reporter: coming up, an accused killer's defense. >> he's smarter than the average criminal, but not as smart as he thinks he is. >> reporter: then after eight years, a verdict. >> what really tormented me all these years is that there's a
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the video at the target store that did not show him and thus blew up his alibi. nailah's friends testified she showed them e-mails and played a voicemail in which he threatened
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>> nailah played that voicemail for them because she was so terrified and essentially, in that voicemail, he said, nailah, i'm going to have you erased, i'm going to make you disappear. >> narrator: in fact said the prosecutors, that's exactly what he did. snuck into her building, led her terrified to the garage, strangled her and stuffed her into her own car. how did they find out where? cell phone towers, linked together like bred crumbs. >> she's not calling anybody, she's not answering calls, her texts are all odd. but her phone and his phone were together, lock step, the entire rest of the day. >> narrator: right to the
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where they found nailah's body. no coincidence that he chose that particular spot so far from chicago, said the prosecutor. >> we find out that the video store next door is owned by potts' brother-in-law. >> narrator: he said yes, he did lie for reginald, but he d dn't know it was to cover up a murder. remember those odd, mails and texts her boyfriend and sister received? it was potts, using her phone, hours after he murdered her, said the prosecution, a clever attempt to throw off a missing person's investigation. >> he's smarter rhan the average criminal, but not as smart as he thinks he is. >> narrator: but reginald potts is nothing if not strategic. >> defense attorneys need to
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so in this case it was very hard to determine cause of death. it's little things like that in the hopes that one juror or two jurors will latch on to that and say i can't cocoict. >> narrator: they even disputed the cell phone evidence the prosecution believed sinced the case. >> the idea that you can learn the location of a cell phone by the pings on a cell phone tower is flawed. >> did reginald's art persde them, two hours and 15 minutes after they began, the jury answered no. they pronounced reginald potts guilty of first-degree murder. >> whew. i was so relieved. i was like, , ay, that's past now is the next thing. >> narrator: the next thing was sentencing, nearly four months later. >> still waiting and hoping he doesn't get four years or something stupid like that. >> narrator: but again, they had
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what was this man all about? there was a hearing to help the judge make a decision about sentence, normally just arguments, recommendations from both sides. but not this time. the prosecution called 35 witnesseseto tell the judge a hair raising story about reginald potts. reginald was not quite the gold plated success story he appeared to be. >> he lived a live of a lot of smoke and mirrors. >> he was a con man who conned a lot of peoeoe. >> narrator: and when the con n was challenged, even law enforcement was a target. >> he uaid he would kill my family, my family would never be safe. >> i was struck three times by mr. potts in the face. >> narrator: he has a long record in prison where he struck guards. all of that was too prejudicial to present at trial, but now
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>> he took her back by the elevator and i heard slap. >> this guy has been a menace his entire adult life. >> and when a woman stood up to him. witness after witness testied that reginald betrayed them, by bullied them or worse. >> this guy not only had a propensity to hurt women, but he d a propensity to choke them and kill them. >> if he tells you what time it is, look at your watch. >> that bad, huh? >> the guy's a monster. >> narrator: a monster, who however briefly fooled even the sophisticated, successful nailah, to her mother's eternal sorrow. >> you don't know who you're letting into your life. they don't always come looking like a monster. >> narrator: there was a kind of
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everyone gets to talk. nailah's murder is stole from our community of bright light. >> i can still hear her moaning and screaming, calling out, begging for her life. >> narrator: but reginald cried, denied everything. >> the jury of my peers came back with a verdict that i believe is false and i believe is invalid, and i believe a court of appeals will overturn it. but right now this court has to honor what they said and impose sentce, but i tell you i am not the person that ms. mccarthy has tried to paint in this courtroom. i'm not a monster. i'm not a monster. >> narrator: we waited to see if a judge would buy reginald's's story, or the prosecutor's. and here it was. >> you are a cold, calculating,
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who must be punished. >> narrator: and indeed he was, life without parole. >> take him away! >> narrator: so that was justice, the most nailah's family could hope for. terribly important. and strangely, empty. >> it's still not done. she's still not back. we still can't talk with her. >> narrator: no, they try to remember nailah, not as a murder victim, but as the beautiful young woman she was, the vibrant center of her family. but grii, real and painful, comes to visit every day. >> you know, people say, oh, well she's your spirit and she's your angel and she's in a better place and all this other stuff, i'm like yeah, but i want her here, i don't want my 28-year-old sister to be my angel, i want her to be right
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>> reporter: that's all for this edition of "dateline." we'll see you tomorrow for at 8:00 for the "dateline saturday night mysteries." i'm lester holt, for all of us at nbc news, good night. starts now. a new beginning between nations. president obama set to become the first sitting president to visit cuba in nearly a century. nbc 6 is live in havana, cuba, tonight with comprehensive team coverage. restoring relations. an historic trip.
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jawan strader. you know, this is a historic event, the presidential visit that has not happened by a sitting president in close to 90 years. >> that is very true, jackie, and of course this is an amazing sight if you haveever been here before. and this is m visit here -- first visit here, so much here, a mix of emotion. i have seen you cover it a number of times but to see everything that is going on here we'll get to that in just a moment. >> i was going to say if you told me a year ago at i would travel to cuba three times in less than a year i thought you would have been crazy. >> i am sure many would agree. but here, the first trip for the president to do so in nearly 90 years. and the country is preparing for president obama's arrival on ssnday. he will be joined by the first lady, michelle, sasha, and
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mrs. robinson. the president has a very busy itinerary, and as you can expect the closer we get to the arrival the more security we'll see around the city. >> and the recent diplomatic ttw between both countries was started back in 2014 but it wili culminate in visit by president obama in havana. but let's take you back to when it all started december of 2014. president obama and raoul castro announced the normalizing of ties. ke freed alan gross, who was in cuban prison for five years. at the summit of the americas in panama in the first official leaders of the two nations since 1961.

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